21 May 2017

Electronic voting machine (EVM), which is due to be used in the 2019 general elections, has features that will help ensure a smoother electoral process, representatives of manufacturing company, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) have said.Briefing stakeholders during an EVM demonstration workshop in Gaborone on Thursday, three BEL representatives said the EVM would assist in conducting the electoral process with greater ease.

“The EVM has numerous advantages. It is easy to understand and use, cost effective, it is battery-operated, which eliminates the need for extra power as it can function for the entire day of the electoral process. It has a 15-year life span and has a very low failure rate,” one of the BEL demonstrators said.

They further said that the EVM had been successfully used in countries such as India and Namibia and eliminated administrative components such as ballot boxes, ballot papers, and reduced the need for their transportation, security and storage.

The components of the EVM include a control unit, which controls the voting process and is used by a poling officer as well as the ballot unit, which contains a list of candidates and their symbols and is used by the electorate to make their choice, which will then reflect on the control unit.

The Secretary to the Independent Electoral Commission, Ms Nomsa Zuze said that they had hosted the workshop with a view of getting various stakeholders involved in the electoral process to get a feel of the EVM.

She said similar demonstrations had already been made to the national executive, and they would continue to engage other stakeholders in the democratic process.

According to Ms Zuze, the IEC has begun working with BEL on the logistics of EVMs, but the procurement of the voting machines has not yet taken place.

BEL, a government of India enterprise founded under that country’s Ministry of Defence in 1954, is a manufacturer and supplier of military equipment and networking systems as well as civilian equipment and EVMs.

The EVM project coordinator, Mr Gabriel Seeletso allayed fears that EVMs could be hacked.

Various stakeholders from civil society and the media expressed concerns about the EVM potentially compromising the legitimacy of the polls, saying there still existed grey areas, particularly around the verification of ballots. ENDS